⁷ Dear friends,^(A) I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.^(B) This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command;^(C) its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing^(D) and the true light^(E) is already shining.^(F)

⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister^[a](G) is still in the darkness.^{(H) 10} Anyone who loves their brother and sister^[b] lives in the light,^(I) and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.^{(J) 11} But anyone who hates a brother or sister^(K) is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.^(L) They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.^(M)

More on Love and Hatred

¹¹ For this is the message you heard^(A) from the beginning:^(B) We should love one another.^(C)

¹⁸ “‘Do not seek revenge^(A) or bear a grudge^(B) against anyone among your people,^(C) but love your neighbor^(D) as yourself.^(E) I am the Lord.

⁹ Now about your love for one another^(A) we do not need to write to you,^(B) for you yourselves have been taught by God^(C) to love each other.^(D)

²² Now that you have purified^(A) yourselves by obeying^(B) the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply,^(C) from the heart.^[a]

¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.^(A)

² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us^(A) and gave himself up for us^(B) as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.^(C)

¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^(A) and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.^(B)

¹¹ Dear friends,^(A) since God so loved us,^(B) we also ought to love one another.^(C)